The NSW Teachers Federation has amalgamated its state and federal branches into a single entity, while the NSW/ACT Independent Education Union expects to officially become a subdivision of the IEUA by the beginning of next year.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is investigating more union-related matters than ever before and is examining whether it needs to take a broader view on what constitutes "restrictive behaviour".
The ACTU is today seeking documents relating to the controversial invitation for Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon to speak at a Liberal Party fundraising event, to see if there is sufficient evidence of bias to launch a case calling for his dismissal.
A workplace ban on employees accessing leave to participate in a union-led rally on Monday has been overturned, on an interlocutory basis, by the Federal Circuit Court, after it accepted the ETU's argument that the move breached workers' general protections.
Awards should be limited to one per industry, with the FWC establishing a "new definition for unsociable hours" for each of them and determining "economy-wide" penalty rates, Business Council chief executive Jennifer Westacott has told a Sydney University gathering.
The High Court will determine whether employers can circumvent sham contracting provisions by utilising a third party, such as a labour hire company, to indirectly engage workers, after the FWO today won special leave to challenge a full Federal Court ruling.
The MUA has told the FWC that sacked stevedoring workers at Hutchison's Port Botany terminal, who last night temporarily won their jobs back, have been unable to do so because security guards are preventing access to the site.
The Federal Court has this evening granted an interlocutory order sought by the MUA to stop stevedore Hutchison Ports from proceeding with plans to dismiss almost 100 employees at its Sydney and Brisbane container terminals.
The MUA told an interlocutory hearing in Brisbane today that stevedore Hutchison should reinstate 97 workers from its Port Botany and Brisbane container terminals, because the company had breached its agreement when it engaged in tokenistic rather than substantive consultation with its workforce.
